Science and Technology Innovation Program

Events

The earthquake in Haiti hit the most vulnerable -- particularly women and girls -- the hardest. Within the first week, reports of sexual violence emerged, as did stories of women and girls struggling to access assistance and living in crowded and unsafe camps. Now, almost one year later, hear from the organizations that remain in place and are gauging their success while also offering innovative solutions.

As concerns about climate change grow and the possibility that we may have to resort to geoengineering to avert a climate catastrophe begins to be taken more seriously, several different viewpoints are emerging about how geoengineering should or could be developed and used.

Please join us on November 10th for a panel and roundtable discussion that will feature findings and recommendations from the CNA report, 2011 Social Media + Emergency Management Camp: Transforming the Response Enterprise. Panelists from the emergency management community, private sector, government, and the digital volunteer community will discuss the report and offer policy and research recommendations for moving forward with the adoption, integration, and practice of social media in emergency management.

The national public safety broadband network will provide interoperable voice and data communications for emergency responders nationwide, and an opportunity to leverage mission critical technologies, such as geospatial and social media, that will dramatically enhance the way public safety prepares for and responds to emergencies. Closing the gap between the emergency responders and private sector innovators is vital to achieving the full potential of the national public safety broadband network.

In response to a congressional request for a technology assessment on climate engineering, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report in August. An interdisciplinary team prepared the report, employing a multi-method approach based on GAO’s quality assurance framework and best practices in technology assessment. The report examined the current state of climate engineering science and technology, experts’ views of the future of U.S. climate engineering research, and potential public responses to climate engineering.

Invited panelists will discuss the science behind synthetic biology, the risks this emerging technology poses to the environment and human health, as well as the socio-economic issues arising from a new “bio-economy” enabled by synthetic biology.

The U.S. Geological Survey’s “Did You Feel It?” (DYFI) system allows people who experience an earthquake to go online and share information about its effects, thus helping to create a map of shaking intensities and damage. After a decade of operational experience with the DYFI system for citizen-based science, Dr. David Wald will discuss lessons learned, including how they apply to other social media (e.g., Twitter) and volunteer-based methods for earthquake detection.

The world is in a race between implementing ever-increasing ways to improve the human condition and the seemingly ever-increasing complexity and scale of global problems. How are we doing in this race?

The rapid rate of innovation and adoption of technology, especially mobile technology, by citizens and first-responders alike has the potential to enable a greater level of community preparedness not previously possible. This panel will explore the potential benefits and reliability of crowdsourced and volunteered information for disaster management.